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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
I really struggled to get through this book. Never really felt a story line or really anything carrying me on as I read. It’s probably just my reading likes/ style but I really struggled to keep characters and story lines straight. And I never quite understood how they all fit together. I do appreciate this book for its cultural richness and its attempt to address the broad history of Bangkok (perhaps too broad though?), but beyond that I struggled with it.
I had to DNF this quite early on.
I think I have to make peace with the fact that general fiction is too slow and boring for me.
I think I have to make peace with the fact that general fiction is too slow and boring for me.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was incredibly, achingly beautiful. I was worried I would be left without resolution for some of the main characters but I am very satisfied with how this concluded. Its classified as short stories here but it felt like a very cohesive novel where the main character is actually the city. Reading this book was like embracing all the iterations of water. The ebb and flow of floods and rivers. The crash of falls or the ocean. The danger beneath the surface of an urban river. This is a book about waters and ghosts. About life and love and time. The imprints we leave and the way that we all fade. I lived how this was set up so playfully treating time and story. I am left with that sort of hollowed out feeling after reading something incredible. I am sure I will hear rain in my dreams for a good while after this.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I found this book quite difficult to get into, although admittedly I read most of it on Tube commutes which is probably not the best reading environment for these types of books. The characters were interesting and developed in depth, and the writing was very beautiful and literary. However, I found it difficult to get stuck in and remember all the character developments. Again, this may be a product of my reading and less so the book. These types of fiction books are also not my favourite, but due to good reviews I wanted to give it a go. The book is definitely well written and intricately weaves in contemporary issues. I may reread the book later to give it a better chance.
Lovely and graceful and skillfully layered. This isn't so much a novel as it is a collection of short stories about a series of recurring characters whose ties to each other, and to a grand old house in central Bangkok, reveal themselves as you get deeper in. Although the structure feels a little disorienting at first, go with it and you'll soon start to get a sense of how the pieces fall together. The book is overambitious, which yields a few too many storylines and too little time with some characters—I especially wanted more on Phineas, the 19th-century missionary doctor we meet in the second chapter. But the writing is magnificent enough to make up for it and the immersive, evocative images of Bangkok through the decades are dreamy. Also: that cover!
A collection of stories set mostly in Bangkok, loosely interconnected, from 1800s into the future.
challenging
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First of all, this is a gorgeous title and pretty much the reason why I picked it up.
And while I admired the evocative and assured language, I kept getting lost between the narrative snapshots. According to the blurb, a house in Bankok is what connects all of the episodes, but this is a rather tenuous link. I found it easier, in most cases, to follow the links between the characters, because the stories aren't always set in Bangkok.
Sudbhanthat aims to cover a lot of ground and time, touching on colonial and revolutionary theory, as well as stretching into sci-fi terrtitory and artifical life/intelligence.
This is certainly ambitious, but also weakened the overall impression, at least for me. The characters appear mostly sketched and are not granted the narrative time to fully invest in them, while the sheer number of topics raised sort of diluted the whole impact. However, this might really appeal to admirers of David Mitchell, e.g.
For me, the novel lacked a clear strucutre to follow the main idea and not get lost side- and backstepping.
And while I admired the evocative and assured language, I kept getting lost between the narrative snapshots. According to the blurb, a house in Bankok is what connects all of the episodes, but this is a rather tenuous link. I found it easier, in most cases, to follow the links between the characters, because the stories aren't always set in Bangkok.
Sudbhanthat aims to cover a lot of ground and time, touching on colonial and revolutionary theory, as well as stretching into sci-fi terrtitory and artifical life/intelligence.
This is certainly ambitious, but also weakened the overall impression, at least for me. The characters appear mostly sketched and are not granted the narrative time to fully invest in them, while the sheer number of topics raised sort of diluted the whole impact. However, this might really appeal to admirers of David Mitchell, e.g.
For me, the novel lacked a clear strucutre to follow the main idea and not get lost side- and backstepping.
This is a great and interesting read about Bangkok (Krungthep) and how it is perceived through the eyes of many different but linked (by friendship, hatred, family and a house-turned-condo in Bangkok) characters across generations (past, present and future). Pitchaya Sudbanthad has said that in writing about the future it is impossible to ignore the effects that the climate crisis will have and how technology will have advanced in response. There are many unique and effortlessly genuine insights into Thai culture (where 'water means home'), superstitions and habits. Rain and floods cause resilience followed by resignation in the eyes of one character. The book flows in time through a non-linear narrative and through the movement of its characters, some of which though no longer living in Thailand seek to keep their memories of it alive (for example through Thai family recipes or by 'blipping' items/ buildings/sites of cultural significance for digital preservation in anticipation of their loss and by literally uploading memories onto a 'public map room'). Observations of socio-economic inequalities and unsustainable and exploitative tourism can also be extracted from this book. All in all, a recommendable cross-genre read.